Yuhei Mogi1,2, Tasnima Abedin1, Salim Ahmed1, Gurleen Gill1, Mohammad Al Mamun3, Hideyuki Kanda4, Yoshihiro Ishikawa2, Tanvir C Turin1. 1. 1Department of Family Medicine, Health Sciences Center, University of Calgary, Room G012F, 3330 Hospital Drive Northwest, Calgary, AB T2N 4N1 Canada. 2. 2Cardiovascular Research Institute, Yokohama City University School of Medicine, Yokohama, Japan. 3. 3Department of Public Health, General Directorate of Health Affairs in Tabuk Region, Ministry of Health, Tabuk, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 4. 4Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, Shimane University, Shimane, Japan.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Google+ is one of the most actively used Social Networking Sites in the world. The aim of our study is to characterize the Google+ communities related to diabetes and identify the factors associated with the activity level of these communities. METHODS: We conducted a systematic search for diabetes-related Google+ communities. We categorized the principal objective of eligible communities into six themes: (1) awareness creation, (2) providing support and sharing experience, (3) product or service promotion, (4) diet-related topics, (5) exercise-related topics, and (6) others. The themes for the posts were: (1) asking for information, (2) providing information, (3) expressing emotion, and (4) advertisement. RESULTS: We included 145 Google+ communities and 378 posts for analysis. Majority (80.0%) of the communities were focused on "General Diabetics", 11.8% were focused on "Type 1 diabetes", 6.2% were focused on "Type 2 diabetes", and 2.1% were focused on "Gestational diabetes". Majority of the communities (35.2%) had the principal objective "Provide support and share experience". Regarding the user-generated posts, 29.6% posts had at least one "+" ("+" is similar to "like" in Facebook), 17.7% posts had comments, and 89.2% posts had external links. Majority of the posts (69.6%) were focused on "General diabetes", 16.9% were focused on "Type 1 diabetes", 12.4% were focused on "Type 2 diabetes" and 1.15 were focused on "gestational diabetes". The top two themes of the posts were "Providing information" (72.8%) and "Advertisement" (31.5%). CONCLUSION: Our study revealed that major activity of diabetes-related Google+ communities was related to providing support and information. However, the accuracy and effectiveness of the information in the communities need to be scrutinized further from clinical perspective.
OBJECTIVE: Google+ is one of the most actively used Social Networking Sites in the world. The aim of our study is to characterize the Google+ communities related to diabetes and identify the factors associated with the activity level of these communities. METHODS: We conducted a systematic search for diabetes-related Google+ communities. We categorized the principal objective of eligible communities into six themes: (1) awareness creation, (2) providing support and sharing experience, (3) product or service promotion, (4) diet-related topics, (5) exercise-related topics, and (6) others. The themes for the posts were: (1) asking for information, (2) providing information, (3) expressing emotion, and (4) advertisement. RESULTS: We included 145 Google+ communities and 378 posts for analysis. Majority (80.0%) of the communities were focused on "General Diabetics", 11.8% were focused on "Type 1 diabetes", 6.2% were focused on "Type 2 diabetes", and 2.1% were focused on "Gestational diabetes". Majority of the communities (35.2%) had the principal objective "Provide support and share experience". Regarding the user-generated posts, 29.6% posts had at least one "+" ("+" is similar to "like" in Facebook), 17.7% posts had comments, and 89.2% posts had external links. Majority of the posts (69.6%) were focused on "General diabetes", 16.9% were focused on "Type 1 diabetes", 12.4% were focused on "Type 2 diabetes" and 1.15 were focused on "gestational diabetes". The top two themes of the posts were "Providing information" (72.8%) and "Advertisement" (31.5%). CONCLUSION: Our study revealed that major activity of diabetes-related Google+ communities was related to providing support and information. However, the accuracy and effectiveness of the information in the communities need to be scrutinized further from clinical perspective.
Entities:
Keywords:
Diabetes; Google+; Health communication; Social media
Authors: Michelle L Litchman; Heather R Walker; Ashley H Ng; Sarah E Wawrzynski; Sean M Oser; Deborah A Greenwood; Perry M Gee; Mellanye Lackey; Tamara K Oser Journal: J Diabetes Sci Technol Date: 2019-03-10